Southwest plans to sell travel to Mexico

Southwest Airlines Co., looking to expand its U.S.-only service, said Monday it will sell tickets for travel to Mexico beginning in 2010 through a deal with Mexican partner Volaris.

The announcement comes a few months after Southwest announced a similar deal with WestJet Airlines that will allow it to sell travel to Canada late next year.

Dallas-based Southwest offered no details of fares or flight schedules for the deal with Volaris, saying that would be worked out by early 2010.

Volaris was founded in 2006 and serves 23 cities in Mexico. It operates a new fleet of 18 Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft — unlike Southwest’s fleet, which is all Boeing 737s, and much older in average age.

Both the Volaris and WestJet deals are called code-sharing, in which airlines sell tickets on each other’s flights and share the revenue.

Beth Harbin, a Southwest spokeswoman, said Volaris will do all the cross-border flying. That’s similar to the agreement in which WestJet will handle flights to and from Canada, connecting to Southwest flights at U.S. airports served by both airlines.

Volaris plans to begin service to the U.S. next year, Harbin said.

Southwest began nearly 40 years ago with three planes and service only in Texas. It now carries more passengers than any other U.S. airline but doesn’t offer international service either on its own or through a code-sharing partner.

For about a year, the airline has been beefing up its technology and reservations system to handle international service, with a plan to go first to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Code-sharing is considered a low-risk way for airlines to expand their networks without adding planes and employees.

But some industry insiders believe Southwest should operate its own planes on near-international routes to avoid splitting the revenue with a code-sharing partner.

“They can fly to Guadalajara or Punta Cana as well as anyone else,” said Mike Boyd, an airline consultant in Colorado, referring to Mexico’s second-biggest city and a resort in the Dominican Republic.

Southwest officials haven’t ruled out doing international flying themselves, but they regard it as adding complexity — and Southwest loves simplicity, from operating only one type of aircraft to offering only one snack, peanuts.

Richard Sweet, who leads a group at Southwest that is studying code-sharing possibilities, said in an interview last week that there are other advantages to teaming with a partner. He said allies provide important brand-name identification in the other country — Canadians know WestJet but might not be familiar with Southwest.

Southwest still has not announced any plans for serving the Caribbean or Europe.

Southwest’s first code-sharing deal was with ATA Airlines. It was limited to domestic flights, but it allowed Southwest to sell tickets on ATA planes to Hawaii until ATA went out of business in April.

Last month, AirTran Airways Chief Executive Bob Fornaro said he would like to discuss a code-sharing deal with Southwest, but Sweet said Southwest was unlikely to strike a new U.S.-only deal.

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